This invention relates generally to squirt guns, and more particularly to squirt guns that are capable of receiving liquid under pressure and thence dispensing the liquid at a high velocity to a great distance.
The present invention is an improvement adaptable to squirt guns such as the types of guns generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,135,559, 4,257,460, 4,735,239, 4,854,480, 5,758,800, 5,906,295, 6,012,609, 6,193,107, whose specifications are incorporated herein by reference, except that the xe2x80x9cexpandable bladderxe2x80x9d systems disclosed in those guns is to be replaced by the similar and more effective xe2x80x9ccompressible air-filled bladderxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cspring-loaded pistonxe2x80x9d systems of the present invention. The structure of similar guns manufactured by Yes Entertainment Systems and publicly sold under model numbers 2000, 2500, 3000, 4500, and others, but which are not the subject of any patents or publications known to the inventor, are also incorporated herein by reference.
High-pressure squirt guns have long been known in the prior art. Such squirt guns usually include a hollow housing having a squirt hole from which water is expelled. The housing may be fashioned in the shape of a rifle or pistol which includes within an expandable rubber bladder connected to filling and release means. The filling means comprises a one-way flow valve that is connectable to the household water supply and allows water to flow only from the supply into the bladder when the release means is in its normal position. It is common to dispose the filling means at the squirt hole so that water is received into and expelled from the gun through the same hole. The release means includes a trigger and is adapted to allow water to leave the bladder through the squirt hole only when the trigger is activated The bladder is intended to accept the water through the filling means at standard household water line pressure, to expand according to the pressure of the supply and the resiliency of the bladder, to hold that water indefinitely under that pressure, and to release the water when the trigger is activated.
Problems common to all such expandable bladder type squirt guns are several-fold. Firstly, the bladders must be designed to safely hold water at great pressure, which requires that the rubber walls be very thick and of high quality. Such bladders are therefore inherently expensive. Secondly, regardless of the economy of the bladder itself, the deterioration of the rubber over time may render the bladders less reliable and such bladders are therefore inherently unsafe without some sort of pressure relief valve. Such relief valves are found in the cited prior art, but are additionally expensive. Thirdly, such relief valves limit the maximum pressure at which the gun may accept water from the source, regardless of the actual pressure of the source. As a result, such prior art guns are unable to expel water to a distance that would otherwise be possible. Fourthly, the relaxed bladder has a volume in its normal and unexpanded state, such as after the bladder is filled and emptied, that undesirably retains a substantial amount of water even after the pressure has been fully reduced. So such guns are incapable of expelling a large portion of the water that they can hold. It is common, for instance, for a xe2x80x9cone-gallonxe2x80x9d gun to hold one gallon of water when filled at normal supply pressure, but to only expel two quarts and to retain two quarts in its bladder when the pressure has been depleted. Fifthly, it is difficult to control the pressure reduction within the bladder and therefore the velocity at which the water is expelled. Several of the cited prior art guns have means which attempt to retain consistent velocity but the nature of rubber bladders render such attempts unreliable at best. Generally speaking, these guns initially expel water at high velocity, but the velocity drops off rapidly and the squirt distance diminishes rapidly as the water is expelled.
Other prior art squirt guns utilize compressed gas to assist in forcing greater quantities of liquid out from the squirt gun to greater distances. One method of injecting compressed gas into the hollow housing of the gun is in the use of a removable cartridge of compressed gas. Other versions of compressed-air type squirt guns utilize manually actuated hand pumps that will introduce air into the housing and compress the air by pumping action. While both such squirt guns expel water to a long distance, the pressure maintained in the housing must be replenished by pumping or by the use of an additional cartridge of compressed gas. Furthermore, the use of compressed gas requires at least some space within the hollow housing into which the gas may be compressed so as to force the water out of the nozzle. This limits the amount of liquid that may be inserted in the squirt gun.
Problems common to all pump-type squirt guns reside in their use of complicated pump mechanisms with many parts. Not only are such mechanisms expensive, but also, they are also prone to breakage during use.
It is therefore a principle object of the present invention to provide an improved trigger-actuated squirt gun capable of propelling liquid a long distance.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved squirt gun that does not require the use of externally supplied compressed gas or pump mechanisms.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a long-range trigger-actuated squirt gun with very few moving parts.
Still another object is to provide a squirt gun that is simple in operation, economical to manufacture, safe, durable in use and refined in appearance.
Still another object is to provide a squirt gun that is capable of receiving water from a water supply at any anticipated pressure and to hold and expel water at that pressure so that the squirt distance can be maximized.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the related arts upon review of the disclosure herein provided for the present invention.
The long-range trigger-actuated squirt gun of the present invention includes a hollow housing in the form of a gun, consistent with squirt gun housings of the prior art. A liquid dispensing assembly within the housing includes a rigid pressure vessel in which is disposed either a sealed compressible air-filled bladder according to the preferred embodiment or, alternately, a spring-loaded piston according to a second embodiment.
The bladder of the preferred embodiment is initially filled with air or another gas at or above atmospheric pressure, then sealed to retain that air, and is adapted so that at such a pressure it has a normal volume that substantially fills the pressure vessel. The bladder thereby forms a liner within the interior chamber of the vessel when the vessel is empty of water.
The pressure vessel is connected through a tube to a nozzle at one end, and is adapted to receive and dispense water through the nozzle, tube, and a one-way valve, all in communication therewith. The one-way valve allows water to flow only into the pressure vessel when the nozzle is applied to the pressurized water supply, but prevents water from flowing out of the nozzle when the nozzle is removed from the water supply. It is anticipated that many of the nozzle arrangements for filling and enabling/disabling water flow could be readily adapted from the prior art or future designs to the present pressure vessel system without departing from the scope of the invention.
When the gun is connected to a pressurized water supply, water is received into the chamber between the inner wall of the pressure vessel and the outer wall of the air-filled bladder. In the herein-disclosed embodiment, an adaptor facilitates quick connection of the gun to and removal of the gun from a faucet. The pressure of the incoming water from the water supply causes the air-filled bladder to be compressed until the pressure within the bladder equalizes to the pressure of the supply. The volume of the bladder is greatly reduced as a result of this pressure and this change in volume equates to the volume of water acceptable by the vessel, and therefore by the gun. The pressure vessel is constructed such that it can safely hold water at the highest pressure anticipated from a water supply. This provides that no pressure relief valve is required, although a pressure relief valve such as, but not limited to, those found in the prior art can be included without departing from the scope of the invention.
A pivotable trigger is mounted in communication with the tube and with one end accessible to the user for actuation. In the here-disclosed embodiment, the one-way valve is incorporated into the trigger, but the trigger and one-way valve could be distinct, so long as they are adapted to cooperate in an equivalent manner and achieve the same result. The trigger is adapted to communicate with the tube so that it denies water flow out of the gun in its normal xe2x80x9cclosedxe2x80x9d position, but actuating the trigger into an xe2x80x9copenxe2x80x9d position allows liquid to flow through the tube and to be propelled out of the nozzle. This is common to the prior art, and many of the arrangements from the prior art are adaptable to the invention without departing form the scope of the invention.
As water is expelled from the pressure vessel, the air-filled bladder returns to its normal volume and refills the inner chamber of the pressure vessel so that substantially all the water taken into the gun is expelled. It is found that the flow of water from guns of the present invention is stronger and more consistent through the entire time of squirting with this system than with any guns found in the prior art.
As stated, an adaptor is provided which is threadable onto a faucet, for filling the gun. A small aperture in the adapter corresponds with the nozzle of the squirt gun to allow filling.
As mentioned, a second embodiment is anticipated in which the rigid pressure vessel includes a spring-loaded piston in place of the sealed compressible air-filled bladder of the preferred embodiment. In this second embodiment as disclosed, the spring is biased towards its extended state, which biases the piston towards the nozzle end of the pressure vessel. The piston is longitudinally slidable within the vessel""s interior chamber and the circular periphery of the piston seals against the cylindrical inside wall of the vessel in a slidable relationship to separate the vessel""s interior chamber into a water-holding portion and an energy-holding portion. Such slidable sealing may be accomplished by various conventional means including those commonly used in manually operated piston-type pumps.
Initially, the water-holding portion is empty of water and minimal in volume as the piston is biased by the extended spring towards the nozzle end of the vessel. Also initially, the energy holding portion is in a low energy state and maximal in volume as the spring is fully extended to occupy most of the chamber""s interior.
When the gun is connected to a pressurized water supply using the same technique of the preferred embodiment, water is received into the water-holding portion of the chamber on the side of the piston opposite of the spring. The pressure of the incoming water from the water supply causes the spring to be compressed and the piston to move longitudinally away from the vessel""s nozzle end and causes the chamber""s water-holding portion to expand simultaneously. This expansion of the water-holding portion, concurrent with the compression of the energy-holding portion, continues until the force against the piston from the energy-holding portion equalizes with the pressure of the supply. The volume of the energy-holding portion is greatly reduced as a result of this pressure and this change in volume equates to the volume of water acceptable by the water-holding portion, and therefore by the gun. The pressure vessel of this embodiment is similarly constructed such that it can safely hold water at the highest pressure anticipated from a water supply. This similarly provides that no pressure relief valve is required, although such is easily and inexpensively accomplished by a simplified valve means such as that disclosed herein. Alternately, those such as may be found in the prior art can be included without departing from the scope of the invention.
A similar trigger arrangement is adapted to allow water flow into but deny water flow out of the gun in its normal xe2x80x9cclosedxe2x80x9d position. Actuating the trigger into an xe2x80x9copenxe2x80x9d position similarly allows water to flow through the tube and to be propelled out of the nozzle.
As water is expelled from the pressure vessel, the piston is forced by the expanding spring towards the nozzle end of the vessel the chamber""s water-holding portion returns to its normally depleted state so that substantially all the water taken into the gun is expelled. The spring is selected to provide a substantially linear force against the piston over the full range of its compression and expansion within the chamber so that the flow of water from guns of the present invention is stronger and more consistent through the entire time of squirting with this system than with any guns found in the prior art.